Tag Archives: Fred Hiltz

Anglicans and Lutherans join forces

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From here:

Inter-church communion the norm in future, predicts primate.

Holding aloft a spade with a bright green pointed blade, Archbishop Fred Hiltz delivered a stirring May Day sermon at Holy Trinity Lutheran Church in Buffalo, N.Y. The service was one of two Canada-U.S. border services, the other in Fort Erie, Ont., celebrating a decade of full communion between Anglicans and Lutherans…..

In Canada, full communion is already manifest in a number of ways. “The National Bishop [Susan Johnson] and I speak with one another every month,” said Archbishop Hiltz. “We share joint messages for Christmas and Easter and release joint statements on many issues, most recently on poverty and homelessness in Canada.”

The two churches held the first joint meeting of their respective governing councils in April and are developing a theme for the joint meeting of the National Convention and General Synod in July 2013 in Ottawa.

While interdenominational cooperation between Christian churches is a commendable endeavour, this particular excursion into ecumenical harmony has more the flavour of two waning liberal-to the-point-of no-longer-being-Christian-churches pooling their diminishing resources in an effort to stay afloat in the face of plummeting attendance and income.

Good for them: may they sink together.

 

Some Saturday absurdities

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Last week, a UN Security Council resolution censuring Israel narrowly escaped passage by virtue of a hesitant veto by the United States – a veto roundly condemned by the World Council of Churches. At the same time, for murdering thousands of his own people, Libya’s lunatic despot, Muammar Gaddafi earned the stern reproach from the UN’s Secretary General: “This is Not Acceptable” and Libya retained its seat on the UN Human Rights Council; the WCC expressed little condemnation but “deep concern about disturbing reports”; Fred Hiltz offered prayers.

We can rest assured that the US military is prepared to deal with what promises to become Middle East mayhem: it is giving its troops gay sensitivity training while on the battlefield. This makes us all so much safer.

Millions of Muslim refugees will undoubtedly flood into Europe and Canada encouraged, in the latter case, by the Anglican Church which is exploring this new avenue of hastening its own demise.

Western Anglicans are predictably upset about the revoking of the bishop of Jerusalem’s – Rev. Suheil Dawani – permit to remain in Israel. I met the bishop when he was in Canada for the ACoC general synod. He is more in favour of “dialogue” with Muslims than in their evangelisation and, therefore, by Canadian standards a true Anglican; he obviously deserves to be an Israeli citizen even though he wasn’t born there.

On a saner note, a Toronto man was surprised to be hit in the head when he peered over the edge of the platform as a train arrived. He wasn’t badly hurt.

Anglican Primates “journeying together in honest conversation"

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The Anglican Primates’ meeting, apart from producing copious travel related  quantities of carbon dioxide – a gas readily found in nature, at least – also resulted in wind of a less wholesome kind.

From here:

“By God’s grace we strive to express … unity in diversity which is the Spirit’s work among the churches of the communion and the community of primates,” the document says. “In our common life together we are passionately committed to journeying together in honest conversation.”

A phrase like that, apart from setting the teeth of every right-thinking person on edge, is a sure sign that someone is trying to pull the wool over your eyes. And they are: the Primates representing the majority of Anglicans didn’t show up so, obviously, they won’t be journeying together in any sort of conversation.

The Primates deliberately avoided talking about the issue that is dividing their church, preferring, instead, to concentrating on trying to decide what a church is, on mouthing the expected platitudes, pontificating on anthropogenic global warming even though it may not exist and deploring the murder of Ugandan gay rights activist David Kato as violence against members of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community even though it may not be.

The obvious thing they didn’t talk about was winning souls for Christ; but why would they? – they are Anglican Primates and, as such, far too sophisticated to fall for that kind of fundamentalist hooey.

There is action in the Anglican Church of Canada. Really

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From here:

The Anglican Church of Canada agreed last week not to take any legislative action in response to differing views on same-sex blessings.

Rather, they chose to have “more conversation,” said Archbishop Fred Hiltz, primate of the Anglican Church of Canada.

“That’s an action,” Hiltz insisted, according to the Anglican Journal.

Hiltz also noted other Anglican actions, some quite dramatic:

  • The Archbishop of Canterbury will not trim his eyebrows this year: the indigenous nesting cormorants will not need to find a new home.
  • The Anglican Church will not stop congratulating itself on having discovered the song “Amazing Grace”.
  • Anglicans in the “conversation” will not stop talking even though they ran out of things to say 20 years ago; some will continue to talk after they die.
  • Hiltz will not stop using the phrase “our beloved church” no matter how many people beg him to do so.
  • The church will not stop suing people: it is part of the generous pastoral response to the call for moratoria.
  • Bishop Michael Bird will not stop playing the bagpipes. Not until Rowan Williams trims his eyebrows.

There you have it: a frenzy of activity.

Fred Hiltz is to be a missional primate

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From the ACoC:

A missional Primate?
What is the Primate’s role in the Anglican Church of Canada? Over the past three years, the Primatial Role Task Force explored this question through historical research and consultation with active Anglicans.

What does “missional primate” mean? It’s hard to tell, but the ever helpful Wikipedia advises us that:

“Missional living” is a Christian term that describes a missionary lifestyle; adopting the posture, thinking, behaviors, and practices of a missionary in order to engage others with the gospel message. The use of the term missional has gained popularity at the end of the 20th Century due to Tim Keller, Ed Stetzer, Alan Hirsch, the Gospel and Our Culture Network, Allelon, and the Emerging church movement, as well as others to contrast the concept of a select group of “professional” missionaries with the understanding that all Christians should be involved in the Great Commission/mission of Jesus Christ.

This seems to imply that to be a “missional primate”, Fred Hiltz would have to cease being a professional clergyman, give up his salary and become a normal Christian – good news indeed.

Christianity Today, thinks that:

A missional theology is not content with mission being a church-based work. Rather, it applies to the whole life of every believer. Every disciple is to be an agent of the kingdom of God, and every disciple is to carry the mission of God into every sphere of life. We are all missionaries sent into a non-Christian culture.

Missional represents a significant shift in the way we think about the church. As the people of a missionary God, we ought to engage the world the same way he does—by going out rather than just reaching out. To obstruct this movement is to block God’s purposes in and through his  people. When the church is in mission, it is the true church.

This is written by Alan Hirsch, who goes by the nails-on-a-blackboard title of “missional activist”. Here we are told to go out, not just reach out – although I am unsure of the distinction.

It is instructive to enter “what is missional” into google; from the results, it seems that the term is sufficiently slippery to appeal to just about anyone who is not allergic to trendy words.

In spite of the fact that I am all for taking the Gospel – the real Gospel – outside the church walls, my unease with what appears to be yet another fruitless attempt to build the Kingdom of God on earth before God is ready to participate is not assuaged by things like this:

More and more evangelical and missional leaders have begun to characterize the gospel of justification by faith alone, penal substitution, and the salvation of souls as a “small gospel.”

Why is that a “small gospel”? What could be larger than the salvation of even a single soul, over which the angels of heaven rejoice?

Fred Hiltz calls for justice at the G8; luckily no-one is listening

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Not justice for the unborn, of course, he is leaving that to Stephen Harper; the deliberate slaughter of babies seems to be of little interest to Hiltz and his abortion-happy breed of Canadian faux-Anglicans. Instead, Fred is getting together with a like-minded assortment of shamans, misfits and verbally incontinent leftists to badger the G8 nations into adopting the idiotic Millennium Development Goals. The MDGs are quixotic and self-defeating: they can never be achieved; the call to meet them will be endlessly renewed; their failure is always blamed on Western governments and, best of all, they divert attention away from the theological, financial and spiritual bankruptcy of those doing the calling. This all suits Fred to a tee.

Archbishop Hiltz, who has made the MDGs a hallmark of his primacy, has been chosen to lead the Canadian interfaith delegation.

At the Winnipeg summit, leaders from 10 different faith traditions-including Muslim, Christian and Shinto-will listen to and report to one another about important issues in their nations. They will hear several high-profile speakers including Canadian senator Romeo Dallaire; the Rev. Jim Wallis of Sojourners magazine, USA; and H.E. Sheikh Shaban Mubajje, grand mufti of Uganda.

The Fred Hiltz Corporate Sponsor Letter

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Here is the letter from Fred Hiltz asking for corporate sponsors:

Dear Friend,

I am writing to invite you to partner with the Anglican Church of Canada as a corporate sponsor for our national gathering in Halifax, Nova Scotia from June 3rd to 11th, 2010. Nearly five hundred people from coast to coast will gather at St. Mary’s University for General Synod which is held every three years.

The theme for General Synod 2010 is “Feeling the winds of God: Charting a New Course”. A major piece of our work will be to consider Vision 2019, a dynamic plan to renew our commitment to God’s mission and to invigorate our ministries of service in that mission. We will also be engaged by presentations on major global issues such as poverty, human sexuality, the rights of indigenous peoples, and the care of the environment. Among a number of special guests at the Synod will be the Anglican Bishop of Jerusalem, the Anglican Observer to the United Nations (by appointment of the Archbishop of Canterbury), the Secretary General of the Worldwide Anglican Communion, and two commissioners of Canada’s Truth & Reconciliation Commission.

This event not only presents an opportunity for you to get your message out to delegates from across Canada, and it is also an opportunity for you to support a faithful group of community and not-forprofit leaders from across the country and their guests from around the world. Comprised of bishops, as well as clergy and lay people elected by their own dioceses, delegates to General Synod are some of the most committed, dedicated and tireless volunteers in our country – they are people who do much to sustain our common life and make the world a better place. In addition to the gathered community, Synod-on-demand now attracts an internet audience in excess of 30 thousand international viewers.

It is my hope that you will consider this invitation and the positive impact your corporation’s support will have on the Church’s ability to ensure the sustainability of this national gathering for years to come.

In Christ,

I am,

Sincerely yours,

The Most Rev. Fred J. Hiltz

Primate

Since there is little that excites me more than “major global issues such as poverty, human sexuality, the rights of indigenous peoples, and the care of the environment”, I am currently negotiating the price of having the Anglican Samizdat logo tastefully emblazoned on every clerical collar.

Fred Hiltz and his stories

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Primate Fred’s Easter message:

“Christ is Risen, Christ is Risen; Tell it with a joyful voice”

Having made our journey through Holy Week, commemorating the events of the Lord’s passion, death and burial we come now to Easter and the joy of His Glorious Resurrection.

Sunday by Sunday throughout the great festival of Easter, we take delight in hearing those stories of how the risen Lord appeared to so many — greeting and calling them by name, opening the scriptures and teaching them, breaking bread in their midst, bestowing his peace, breathing the Holy Spirit into their hearts and then sending them into all the world.  Alongside these wonderful stories are accounts of the earliest Christian preaching recorded in The Acts of the Apostles.

The important thing about Easter is that these were events not stories: they actually happened,  they have objective reality. At Easter, Christians delight in the fact that Jesus rose physically from the dead, not in hearing those stories. I’m sure Fred realises this – maybe.

What holds us together as Anglicans?

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The Diocese of BC is holding its 93rd synod and Fred Hiltz in his Primatial address answered the question. I’m not sure why he chose this question, since his main area of expertise is Experientially Discerning™ that which divides Anglicans. Nevertheless, here it is:

“What holds us together as Anglicans?” He then listed the usual marks of unity that are commonly cited as maintaining unity within the Anglican Communion – our common faith and tradition, the office of the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Lambeth Conference, the Primates’ Meetings, the Anglican Consultative Counsel. He suggested that beyond these we are also united in the Eucharist, in our use of the Worldwide Cycle of Prayer and in our Companion Diocese Program.

At least he’s clear that it’s not the Bible or Jesus that unites Anglicans.